


The Arc of Conflict, Fragment s17,1: What happened before, and what happens next

by bzarcher, solarbird



Series: Of Gods and Monsters [114]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Cognitive Dissonance, Dissociation, Espionage, F/F, Goddesses, Gods, Memories, Memory Alteration, Oasis (Overwatch), Plans, Polyamorous Character, Polyamory, Post-Talon, Post-Talon Widowmaker | Amélie Lacroix, Russia, Subterfuge, Talon Angela "Mercy" Ziegler, Talon Emily (Overwatch), Talon Lena "Tracer" Oxton, Time Shenanigans, Trans Sombra | Olivia Colomar
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-10
Updated: 2020-08-10
Packaged: 2021-03-06 01:41:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,284
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25815232
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bzarcher/pseuds/bzarcher, https://archiveofourown.org/users/solarbird/pseuds/solarbird
Summary: Katya Volskaya's government in Russia has destroyed the omnium Koschei, and held their own against the Gods of Oasis. But with Jesse McCree having upset a precarious balance, Lena, Hana, and Sombra have intervened in Russia's rising civil war. Now, what little stability Overwatch had managed to maintain seems on the verge of disintegration......as Lena Oxton needs her mother's help to sort out whathad beenfrom whatcould be, now.Of Gods and Monsters: The Arc of Conflictis a continuance ofThe Arc of Ascension,The Arc of Creation, andThe Armourer and the Living Weapon. To follow the story as it appears,please subscribe to the series.
Relationships: Emily/Lena "Tracer" Oxton/Widowmaker | Amélie Lacroix, Moira O'Deorain/Angela "Mercy" Ziegler
Series: Of Gods and Monsters [114]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/972024
Comments: 12
Kudos: 30





	The Arc of Conflict, Fragment s17,1: What happened before, and what happens next

**Author's Note:**

> dirtyclaws has launched [a public fan-run _Of Gods and Monsters_ discord server](https://discord.gg/pDZMpVT) and invites everyone to come join it. ^_^

Lena waited outside the treatment room, leaning against the hallway wall, Danielle and Emily almost holding her up, hands in hands or on face, talking with her, keeping her going as the memories she'd gained between blinks threatened to tear her down.

It helped, Lena found. A lot.

"I can't believe you pantsed an entire Russian division," Emily said, trying to keep the conversation light.

"Ah yeah, luv. It, it, it was, a bit of a laugh, wasn't it? Good, good fun. And, and, showed it can be changed. All of it. More, more than I thought. Already done. That, that, and Michael..."

Michael Ngcobo had insisted - demanded - that Nepalese, Chinese, and Tibetian sovereignty be maintained and respected, no matter what Overwatch may have done. He argued forcefully, and Lena's voice - her grasping at his demand, jumping to support it, not entirely sure why - had shored up his position.

There would be no slaughter at Overwatch Nepal. Not today.

Lena had held up right up, not stopping, not until she was convinced enough had changed that what she knew about what had been was no longer inevitable. Then, her psychological resources exhausted, she'd all but collapsed, sobbing into her mother's arms, saying "help me, help me, fix, fix, fix me, mum, you're alive, you've _alive_ now, you've, you've done it, it, before, and you're _alive_ , you _can..._ "

And now, they were here, as Moira and Angela set up to move Lena's sudden new memories off into the distance, a little more than just a little, much like the Slipstream - far enough back to handle it without the luxury of time, but close enough, still, to use it, and make plans.

Lena had insisted. There was still more to be done.

"But..." Emily said.

"It was, z, z, Zarya, she said no. So, yeh, nope, Lena, can't kill a one, right?"

"Nnngh," groaned Emily, petting her younger wife's head. "It sounds terrible."

"It was!" Lena agreed, certain of that much, past, present, and future. "You, you know what it's like, all revved up and nothin' to do, yeh? But then I thought of it. These aren't real mil, mmmmmilitary, they're cops! They're the filth! It's, it'sss like..."

She sagged, and took a breath, and Danielle moved to brace her even more.

"...soldiers. Soldiers. Yeh? Soldiers. Soldiers deserve a good death."

"Absolutely," Emily agreed.

"But the filth? Screw 'em. All, all, all cops are bastards. Don't care how much they dress 'em up like soldiers, they're still bastards. They're still pants." She managed a soft giggle. "So I pantsed 'em."

"That is a terrible joke," Danielle chorted, brushing her lips along Lena's cheek, and Lena leaned into the touch as Emily grumbled.

"I still would've killed them," the Second Weapon insisted, "Even so."

"Nuh-uh, luv. If you can't k, keep it in check, y'gotta stay out of Russia. That's her domain now. We'll be let in to help out sometimes, par, particularly if Overwatch shows up, but... mostly, it's her, and them. And us, wh, when we can help. On, on the qu, quiet."

"I hope she has a more realistic view of the current government at this point," Danielle said, rubbing Lena's neck, feeling her struggle to keep going, feeling her stress.

"Yeee, yeh, she does." Lena nodded. "Y'could see it in her face, when she finally finished waking up. You know. All the way."

For a brief moment, she looked happy. "I'm glad I could be there t'see it. I love seein' people reborn."

"Why does it have to be all-Russian?" Emily asked. "We could take care of this in a couple of days."

"We almost had done so, before Athena stepped in," Danielle noted. "It would have saved a great deal of trouble."

"We, we, we talked about it after. After the bubble. Zarya and me. She's, she's better read than I thought..."

"Guess she had a lot of time for reading," Emily said, "in Mexico, and South America."

"I guess so. Or you know, maybe - well, maybe you don, don't know, Danielle, you were never prop, proper military. Emily does. Was. There's a lot of hurry up and wait."

"I am _exceptionally_ good at waiting," Danielle pointed out.

"Yeh, that's wh, why y'don't know. Most pe, people need somethin' t'do. So they re, read or make, make things. Usually trouble! But..."

She shook her head. _C'mon, mum, hurry, hurry, please, this, this is so hard, got t'keep 'em separate, can't, can't take 'em in too much but can't stop it forever..._

"Anyway, there're these iden, ident, identity building moments? Identity c, creating moments? Where y'throw off the oppressor, or the old regime, or, or, or, and start building your new, new way forward. Having that gives everybody something to ... t'buy into, kinda. To feel part of, right?"

"I suppose so," Danielle said, dubiousness about where this was going mixed with her concern.

"Nah, nah, imagine France without the Revolution, luv. Doesn't, Doesn't work, does it? Completely different place. Or, or... all around the Caribbean, and the Americas, and Africa, and - well, everywhere my ancestors were right bastards, yeh? There're these coun, countries, one after another, that overthrew the colonisers of some empire or other, one after one after one, and it's all all all really important to of 'em."

"Fair enough," Danielle said, as Emily listened, trying to understand.

"But, but there're a few where that didn't happen, right? Where they _got_ liberated, sorta, instead of liberating themselves, or just, just left out, right, left ov, over bits of emmmmpire. And sometimes it works out, but a lot of times it doesn't, and when it doesn't, it usually takes another revolution or some, some, something t'get them feeling like they're..."

She shook her head, frustrated at her inability to put the idea together. _So tired_ , she thought. _Never feel tired. Hate it._ "She used a word, wasn't, wasn't in my Russian lessons so I can't saaaaay it in English. But... t'feel like they're part of everything. That they bought in."

"And if we step in," Daneille said, "we deny them that?"

"They feel fake," Emily said. "Or," she reconsidered, hitting on one of Lena's favourite phrases, "...half-formed?"

"Ye, ye, yeah! That's it! Half-formed. Or not formed at all. S'no good."

"That seems... I am not sure I agree," Danielle mused. "I think Russia already knows very what it is, and is well ensconced in that knowledge."

"Rus, Russia knows what it _was_ ," Lena insisted, as Moira - Angela behind her - leaned out through the open door and nodded to Danielle and Emily. "This, this is where Russssssssia has to, to, t'decide... to, to, _learn_ what it's gonna be _next_."

\-----

Three hours later, Lena lay on a recovery bed, exhausted, but energy reserves finally rebuilding, her wives still waiting outside. Moira, too, waited, but in her office, to give Lena another examination the moment she declared herself ready.

"I need a little time alone, luvs," she'd said. "Pick through some things in my head."

"You? Alone?" Emily had asked, surprised.

"For once, yeh," Lena had said. "Don't worry, just got t'sort through some of these memories, right? Won't be long, I swear."

And so, she lay quietly in the small room, in the mostly dark. She hadn't lied; she really did need some time to sort through all she'd learned. All she'd been _given_ , in the slipstream, by her former future self.

But she also needed a little time alone... with someone else.

"Hola," Sombra said, her voice low. "Here I am."

"Good," Lena smiled. "Right on time."

"We're not really staying out of Russia, are we?"

"Oh, we are," Lena smirked,"...except when we're _not_."

And then, it was Sombra's turn to smile.

**Author's Note:**

> This is the forty-third instalment of _Of Gods and Monsters: The Arc of Conflict_. To follow the story, [subscribe to the series via this link](https://archiveofourown.org/series/972024), rather than to the individual works.


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